Last year was the deadliest for journalists in more than three decades, with the majority killed in the Middle East, according to a report released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). <\/p>\n
At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024, the most recorded since the CPJ began collecting data three decades ago. <\/p>\n
Nearly 70% of those deaths were at the hands of the Israeli military in Gaza and Lebanon, the report said, with 82 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces denied targeting media workers, saying it \u201ctakes all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians including journalists.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s death toll exceeded the previous record in 2007, when 113 journalists were killed, almost half of them amid the US-led war in Iraq. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe war in Gaza is unprecedented in its impact on journalists and demonstrates a major deterioration in global norms on protecting journalists in conflict zones, but it is far from the only place journalists are in danger,\u201d the committee\u2019s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement. <\/p>\n
It accused Israel of being \u201cslow and not transparent\u201d in its inquiries into soldiers\u2019 killings of journalists, of shifting blame to the victims and ignoring its duty to hold its military to account. <\/p>\n
After Gaza and Lebanon, the report identified Sudan and Pakistan as the deadliest places for journalists, with six media workers killed in each last year. Mexico, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq and Haiti also had multiple killings of journalists in 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of conflicts globally \u2013 whether political, criminal, or military in nature \u2013 has doubled in the past five years, and this is reflected in the high number of deaths of journalists in nations such as Sudan, Pakistan, and Myanmar,\u201d the CPJ said, citing data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) monitoring initiative. <\/p>\n
The CPJ report said at least 24 journalists worldwide had been killed deliberately because of their work over the past year, describing this as \u201can alarming rise in the number of targeted killings.\u201d <\/p>\n
Among them was Ismail Al-Ghoul, a 27-year-old Palestinian journalist, who was killed alongside his cameraman, Rami Al-Rifi, in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza last July, sparking condemnation from advocacy groups. <\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of Al-Ghoul\u2019s killing, his employer, Al Jazeera, denied what it called \u201cbaseless allegations made by the Israeli occupation forces in an attempt to justify its deliberate killing of our colleague, journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul, and his companion, cameraman Rami Al-Rifi.\u201d <\/p>\n
The IDF has rarely provided specific answers about the circumstances that led to the killing of journalists. Instead, the Israeli military has issued vague statements that reiterate their forces do not intentionally target journalists or that the matter is under investigation. <\/p>\n
Trapped in the strip alongside their fellow Gaza residents, Palestinian reporters have been the eyes and ears of those suffering under the shadow of war. And with foreign media largely unable to enter, it is their photos, footage and reporting, often gathered at great personal risk, that have shown the world what is happening. <\/p>\n
The committee said 10 journalists were deliberately killed by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon. The 14 other journalists whose deaths it determined were deliberate were from Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Mozambique, India, Iraq, and Sudan. <\/p>\n
The report highlighted the ongoing failures to protect journalists and media workers, especially freelancers, in countries with consistently high rates of killings. <\/p>\n
It cited the killing of a veteran journalist, Alejandro Mart\u00ednez Noguez, who was shot last August in Mexico while under police protection as an example of the \u201cpersistent flaws\u201d in the country\u2019s mechanisms meant to protect journalists. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe death tolls in Mexico, Pakistan, India, and Iraq reinforced the extreme dangers journalists face in these nations, which have experienced repeated killings over multiple decades despite numerous efforts in some of these countries, including at the national level, to address this,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n
Freelancers, it said, were killed at an \u201cunprecedented rate\u201d last year. A total of 43 were killed, more than a third of all media worker deaths, the majority of which were Palestinians in Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe typical freelancer frequently works alone, without staffers\u2019 access to protective equipment, security guards, insurance for medical treatment, or benefits that would help surviving family members,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n
It called on governments, international institutions and media organizations to ensure accountability for threats and attacks against journalists and to provide media workers with the necessary support to do their work. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery journalist killed is the loss of a truth-teller. Those who chronicle our reality and hold power to account deserve justice. We will not stop seeking it,\u201d the committee said in a post on X. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Last year was the deadliest for journalists in more than three decades, with the majority killed in the Middle East, according to a report released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024, the most recorded since the CPJ began collecting data three decades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}